Jan. 11 KENTUCKY: Judge Tightens Gag Order In Murder Case A judge has ordered everyone involved in a high-profile murder case in Bowling Green -- including family and friends -- to keep quiet about the case. "No one with an interest in the outcome of this case ... is to make any public comment in any type of medium designed for mass consumption," Special Judge Thomas Castlen said at a pretrial hearing Monday. Lucas Goodrum, 23, is scheduled to go on trial March 1 for the murder of Katie Autry. The Western Kentucky University freshman who was beaten, stabbed, raped and set on fire May 4, 2003, in her campus dormitory room. She died 3 days later. Castlen specifically prohibited newspaper ads promoting a Web site started by Goodrum's mother and stepfather that proclaims his innocence. The ads have appeared in the Daily News in Bowling Green and other publications around the region. "Regardless of whether a party or person is before this court, make no attempt to communicate with potential jurors in this case, whether by an ad in the local newspaper, television or radio," he said. "I can't think of any reason why anyone would want to put an ad in the paper other than to influence potential jurors. Castlen said he would charge anyone violating his order with jury tampering or contempt of court. Some legal experts said Castlen may have overstepped his boundaries. While a judge has power to issue a gag order over state officers, attorneys and parties directly involved in the case, Louisville-based media attorney Jon Fleischaker said Castlen's order impinges the First Amendment rights of citizens. "You cannot gag the community. What he's worried about is creating an environment where it would be difficult to create an impartial jury, and I understand his concern, but I think he's gone too far," Fleischaker said. The families of Goodrum and Autry declined comment, saying they were unsure whether the judge's order applied to interviews with news reporters. The Web site, www.lucasisinnocent.com, was still operating on Tuesday. Another defendant in the case, Stephen B. Soules, 21, pleaded guilty in March to murder, rape, arson and other charges. He agreed to testify against Goodrum, and in exchange prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty for Soules. (source: Associated Press) CALIFORNIA: Juror, warden urge clemency for condemned man A former San Quentin State Prison warden and a juror who voted for Donald Beardslee's execution are urging Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to commute his sentence to life without parole. The letters to Schwarzenegger, released Tuesday, come as the governor considers his second request for clemency since taking office, and days before the 61-year-old condemned man's Jan. 19 execution at San Quentin. The juror, Robert Martinez, is seizing on Beardslee's clemency petition in which his attorneys and doctors say Beardslee's right hemisphere of the brain is "virtually nonfunctioning" and was so when he killed 2 women after luring them to his Redwood City apartment in 1981. A doctor who examined him said the impairment, perhaps caused by a vehicle accident or when he was struck by a tree 4 decades ago, is the source of his "distorted perception of reality," Beardslee said in his clemency petition. Martinez said had he known of these alleged impairments during the trial, he would have voted against death. An unanimous verdict is required for death, and two other jurors told Schwarzenegger that more testing on Beardslee should be conducted before he is executed. "This kind of information would have made a difference to me and it would have helped me stay on the side of life without the possibility of parole," Martinez said. Daniel Vasquez, the former warden, urged leniency as well, calling Beardslee "a model prisoner" during his time San Quentin, and said he would be an "asset to the safety and smooth running of the institution." Schwarzenegger, who denied clemency last year to the 1st condemned man facing execution under his watch, is holding a clemency hearing for Beardslee on Friday. Beardslee, now 61, was convicted of killing Paula Geddling and Stacey Benjamin to get even for a soured drug deal. The crime began when Frank Rutherford, who is serving a life sentence in connection to the murders, shot Geddling in the shoulder when she came to Beardslee's apartment in Redwood City. The defendants lured the 2 women there to seek revenge for being stiffed out of drugs. Beardslee and Rutherford took the wounded Geddling to a roadside along Highway 1 in San Mateo County, where she was shot several times. Benjamin was strangled and her throat slit the same day in a secluded area in Lake County. The jury convicted Beardslee of performing the acts that proved fatal to both victims, and he confessed to the crimes. His court appeals are nearly exhausted. (source: Associated Press) INDIANA: Inmate missed deadline to review execution A Fort Wayne man who waived further reviews of his death sentence has changed his mind -- but too late, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled today. Joseph E. Corcoran -- who now wants to live -- is past the deadline for seeking a review, the high court found. The 29-year-old Corcoran, convicted of the 1997 murders of his brother and three other men, had waived his appeal rights and stated he wanted to be executed. But in November, he had a change of heart, said his attorney, Deputy Public Defender Joanna McFadden. By that time, the public defender's office had asked the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court's finding that Corcoran was mentally competent to forgo a review. The court held 4-to-1 today that Corcoran was competent, but that he had waited too long to seek a post-conviction review. The deadline was in September 2003, according to the Indiana Attorney General's Office. Gary Secrest, chief counsel for the Attorney General's Office, said that Corcoran did not "miss" the deadline for filing, he consciously chose not to file by that date. "It was not negligence," he said. "Because you change your mind later, you don't get that 2nd chance." The Supreme Court ruling stunned McFadden. She said it's clear Corcoran is seriously mentally ill, adding that just last Friday Gov. Kernan -- in commuting the death sentence of a mentally ill man -- expressed concern about executing disturbed people. Post-conviction review, McFadden added, is "a very ordinary step." Corcoran is "not asking for anything extreme." Corcoran's legal team still has options. These include seeking a re-hearing from the Indiana Supreme Court or asking for permission to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Corcoran was sentenced to die for killing his brother, James Corcoran, 30; Robert Scott Turner, 32; Douglas A. Stillwell, 30; and Timothy G. Bricker, 30. The men were slain with a semi-automatic rifle at the home Joseph Corcoran shared with James Corcoran and his sister, Kelly Peterson, then Kelly Nieto. Turner was her fiance. The defense did not dispute Corcoran's guilt, saying that in his "troubled, paranoid, immature, disturbed mind" he believed the four victims were making fun of him. Experts have said Corcoran suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and has recurrent delusions that Department of Correction prison guards are torturing him through the use of an ultrasound machine, causing pain and uncontrollable twitching. The experts said that Corcoran's initial decision to be executed stemmed from his desire to escape the agony. The high court, however, found that Corcoran made no statements indicating the delusions drove his decision to die. In fact, Corcoran himself rejected that notion, telling authorities he waived his appeals "because I am guilty of murder." In Indiana, capital cases are automatically reviewed by the state Supreme Court and Corcoran's sentence earlier was affirmed by the panel. But the review that Corcoran now seeks requires the convicted person to make a written request. McFadden said her client talked of fighting his death sentence last spring, but didn't authorize the filing of the petition until shortly before Thanksgiving. The Supreme Court found Corcoran took too long to act. "We conclude that, at the post-conviction stage, the interest in achieving finality outweighs the benefits of mandating further review," the majority opinion said. In the lone dissent, Justice Robert D. Rucker wrote that he believed Corcoran to be mentally ill and not competent to waive his post-conviction review. He cited the testimony of the psychiatric experts. For Kelly Peterson, whose fiance was murdered by Corcoran, today's ruling makes little difference. She says she has no contact with her brother in prison, and nothing to say to him. "I don't know what he wants," she said. "I don't even know what he's thinking." (source: Indianapolis Star)
